Conventional containers, such as corrugated cardboard boxes, have the interior divided into a plurality of sections or spaces by cardboard dividers. These spaces are then used to hold bottles, cans, or a variety of other articles which need to be stored or shipped. The primary strength of conventional containers and dividers is furnished by the walls of the cardboard container itself, by the physical articles contained therein, and by the divider. Articles which have no substantial strength or which must be protected from crushing or penetrating forces must rely on the strength of the container and the divider for protection.
In the past, to provide adequate protection for fragile goods, it has been necessary to thicken the walls of the container. If the container walls were not thickened, they would buckle under the weight of other stacked containers and would allow penetration and crushing from externally applied forces. Increasing the wall thickness of the container has the disadvantage of requiring more material in the walls of the container for any given unit of strength, thereby increasing the cost of the packaging for the articles transported or stored.
Applicant has devised a new divider for use in containers, such as cardboard corrugated containers, which greatly increases the compressive strength of the containers from weight loads occasioned by stacking and strengthens the containers from forces tending to penetrate or crush the container walls. Applicant's new divider and a container using the divider incorporated therein need not have the wall thickness of the cardboard container increased. As a result, the container using applicant's divider is very economical in the use of materials for the incremental strength added.
Applicant achieves this increase in strength by folding over the ends of the divider partitions at locations adapted to lie adjacent to the walls of a container and then glueing the folded ends back into the main body of the partitions. The glued folded ends form areas of increased wall thickness. These thickened areas stiffen the ends of the partitions and prevent buckling of the divider or partitions under vertical loads, thereby increasing the total compressive strength of the divider as a whole and of a container having the divider incorporated therein. The partitions, on being placed in a container resist against compressive forces and resist penetration of objects into and through the container wall.